Before we ask that, we need to know what exactly a top level domain is. It’s actually pretty simple and straight forward. If you want your business to get noticed or want to take it to the next level, you need to make sure that you do it right. So, keeping up with the times, most people will recommend getting a website for your company or business. Now to get a website all you have to do is register a domain of your choice. Sounds simple? The catch is, thousands of domains are registered every day, so you might not even get the one you chose for yourself. Then what do you do? You take the help of Top Level Domains available which can facilitate your and your business requirements.

The top level domain (TLD) should be unique so that it can generate maximum interest and help your business develop. For e.g., if your business is targeted exclusively in India then, it’s a good idea to choose ‘.CO.IN’ top level domain

Doing some research on domain extensions always proves to be useful because, as mentioned earlier there will be cases where the awesome domain name chosen by you will already be registered. In those cases, getting a domain extension will save you a lot of trouble. ‘.biz’ for business websites, ‘.info’ for information sites ‘.mobi’ for mobile products and services are fine examples for domain extensions.

To get a better idea about the Domains there are 2 kinds-generic TLDS and Country Code TLDs. The generic ones include names like, ‘.COM’, ‘.NET’, ‘.INFO’, ‘.ORG’, ‘.BIZ’ that are widely open for registration to all users. There are also country specific TLDS available for which specific registration rules apply-,’.IN’, ‘.UK’ are country specific TLDS.

Benefits:

It’s always easier to communicate when all the members have the same domain within the organisation. ‘Member-name. organisation’ enables the client to locate their members on the internet in the most clearest possible way.

Owning a TLD means that owners have the choice and complete freedom to control their own name-space (it is the name that comes before the dot) so, they can formulate their own policies to ensure the interest of their internet community.

You can create second level domain names (e.g. in ‘.ac.in ‘.ac’ is the second level domain name) .This means you can commercialise the domain registrations and create a revenue system using the TLD as a generic domain extensions.

Now that you are equipped with all the information, how should you go about applying for one? To find out, you need to know about ICANN.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Numbers and Names, or ICANN regulates the use of Internet domain names. It collaborates and assists different organisations to ensure the continued success of the internet. It announced last June that it would open the field of generic top-level domains (“gTLD”), the identifiers to the right of the dot (.com, .biz, .org) from the current 22 to any word in any language. The application period began on January 12, 2012 and will end 3 months later.

When you are a budding entrepreneur, nothing ruins the enthusiasm than setting up your own store and then giving up 95% of the earnings for rent! Considering the escalating prices of everything under the sun, it is wise to consider alternative options to do your business. With the internet being the lifeline of most of us (the remaining live under a rock), setting up a web store for your product is a very feasible option. Why? For one, it will save you a lot of dough and it just makes more sense to the people who have accessibility issues and the rest who are just plain lazy.

There are many things that need to be done when setting up a web store, most important being, setting up the website. Setting up an e-commerce based web store is a sensible decision. It will provide you with an outlet to effectively distribute market and sell goods or services online. But you need to go through the right channels to strike a deal with companies so that you are not conned out of your precious money and business idea over a cup of coffee. Most of the time, you will come across companies who are visibly shady and confidently promise to offer you a “sweet deal” while standing on the sidewalk outside their “office”. Hence, the most crucial question is, “what should I look for when choosing a company”. Good Question. Read on and you shall receive the answers.

Look for the complete package:

Most companies just either design the website or host your site. Find a company which does both. It’s crucial because if the company doesn’t host the designed site, it will be a really difficult job to find a host which will be able to host the website after meeting the specifications of the designed site. Just don’t go down that road. It will save you a lot of time and money. Oh and these companies often give discounts on packages of designing and hosting a site, so out and out it is a sweet deal.

Ask for Samples:

A good company will tell you about the work they have done. A great one will show you samples. These samples will tell you about their ideas, designs and hosting services. You will make better decisions and will be able to prioritize the needs of the site more efficiently.

Be generous with your site:

Your business is like your offspring. You should not be afraid to pay for services which make your site look and perform better. You might be a DIY mastermind at home but leave your site to the professionals. They will do a better job and will help make the site stand out in the internet.

Pay Attention:

Pay keen attention to how the company responds to all your queries. How, by asking relevant questions with the enthusiasm of a 5-year old. If you find them straying away from your concerns and trying to sell you something which will not do justice to your product, drop the company. Try other companies until you get what you need.

When taking a plunge with entrepreneurship, you don’t have to spend truckloads of money to get the desired results. Internet is an outlet which has caters to literally everyone and their need. It is an excellent medium to market your products and getting sweet deals in return, not to mention the huge audience. Use the internet wisely and you will definitely see results.

Avnet Technology solutions, a web hosting provider recently announced that it has introduced a suite of off-premise cloud solutions designed for value added reseller. This suite is aptly called Avnet Cloud Solutions.

This suite will be delivered on an annual basis which will minimize the development cost and will nurture repeatability. The main goal of his suite is to provide services in various areas of cloud computing where user demand is satiated by off-premise cloud deliver models.

Avnet cloud solution suite is looking forward to help its clients find the fastest route to become trusted customers by providing them with emergent domain expertise in off-premise cloud computing.

“Avnet invested more than a year of research and development into the creation of Avnet Cloud Solutions, analyzing the short- and long-term cloud computing opportunities in the data center,” said Tim FitzGerald, vice president of Avnet cloud solutions group for Avnet Technology Solutions of Americas. “Avnet Cloud Solutions will leverage this knowledge to help our partners capitalize on cloud computing opportunities that are in the greatest demand among customers today. The Avnet Cloud Solutions team will work with our partners to accelerate their growth and build successful off-premise cloud solutions businesses.”

To develop its portfolio of integrated and packaged solution offerings, Avnet has joined hands with cloud providers like Savvis to develop their suite of integrated and packaged solutions.

Avnet said, “We chose cloud providers that align with the workloads that the team has determined are in high-demand areas, along with those providers that meet specific requirements that ensure the best interests of Avnet’s partners are protected and bring the greatest value to end customers”.

Instant seems to be everybody’s favourite word in this decade. ‘Instant coffee’,’ instant messages’, ‘instant mail’, ‘instant job’ (ok, not jobs, have to be realistic here). But the order of the day is that the lot of the 21st century has become lazier in comparison to their ancestors thanks to ‘instant everything’. Now that they have become lazy or “busy” (that’s how they put it), companies have found a way to cash in on this deadly sin as well (Wrath, you are next) and thy name is “Online Shopping”.

With this unique portal you can buy an artifact from Cambodia or the latest Louis Vuitton bag without even getting off the couch. All you need a butt-load of money in the form of your spouse’s or dad’s credit card and a computer with a decent internet connection.

Online shopping has added an entire new dimension to the shopping experience. You can shop anytime and anywhere, buy things from all over the world. You can even buy Brad Pitt’s used napkin from the internet though its authenticity might be questionable. Now, keeping all the glorious joys of shopping from home aside, you do have to pay for them (it’s still not free). The easiest way to do it is through PayPal. This is mostly because it’s easy and usually it’s the go-to money transaction system for all the businesses who sell their products online.

For those who don’t know about PayPal, by definition, it is a business which allows payments and money transfer through the internet. This can be used from anywhere in the world. It works as long as you have a credit/debit card and money in the bank.

Even after revolutionising the shopping experience by putting everything online, most people refrain from buying things online. They have their reasons and good ones at that. They have a few horror stories to share, including the one where the package never arrived and PayPal refused to refund the money. But the bad stuff is very rare; most customers are quite satisfied with the service.

PayPal has millions of customers all over the world and people are using it on a daily basis to buy numerous products from the net. PayPal is a fairly reliable way to select the payment schemes for the product you want to buy.

How it Works?

PayPal works as an online account system. Once you open your account here, you will be depositing a certain amount in it. Now when you go to your favourite online store for some retail therapy, you can do the payment procedures through your PayPal account. All this depends upon how much credit you have in the account.

PayPal also has a limit of how much you can deposit and how much you can use at a time. This system works on the same principle as the prepaid plan of your mobile phone. The system is sound on its own but it is expensive and sometimes prone to security breaches.

Shop Safe

Internet is an ocean where you are merely a clownfish. The online shopping is a different ball game altogether. There are sharks (Hackers, phishing experts) that are just waiting for you to click on that shiny attractive link which promises you a rare and “original first issue of superman in mint condition”. The only catch probably involves you signing up with just your bank account number and password. How convenient right? That’s why you need to be alert and use your common sense when shopping online and sharing your details there.

Here are some points which would try to convince you that PayPal is actually a safe bet when shopping online. If you are still not sure about it, then you are welcome to roll your eyes under those fabulous Gucci Shades you got off discount on EBay.

PayPal’s cutting edge fraud models and Scam detection protocols led by the modern technology work tirelessly to stop the scammers before they strike. Also PayPal regularly develops its security and anti fraud technologies to keep the cons away.

PayPal has the industry’s most strict and knowledgeable anti- con team on their side. PayPal takes its customer and their security very seriously. This is why the loss incurred by the customers through PayPal is significantly lower than its other industry peer.

PayPal commits itself to its customers and to maintain their safety. Hence, during transactions the recipients can see only limited information none of which has anything to do with your account information.

Keep in mind that scammers and frauds will continue to do what they do best. It is up to you to be smart and logical about the situation and take control. PayPal and other such systems can only do so much to protect you and your details. You really can’t blame these systems if you are naive enough to believe that someone in the internet is selling the Map to El Dorado or you just became the proud partner of an oil rig in the Middle East!

Web hosting provider CentriLogic and WIND Mobile have started a partnership to provide all kinds of web and cloud hosting services to their customers. CentriLogic is a well known company and offers superior quality data centers across United States and Canada. This partnership is also keen on managing computing and co location services to delight its customers.

Robert Offley, CEO of CentriLogic, said that proximity to leading corporations such as WIND was instrumental in selecting Toronto for the new data center facility. CentriLogic hopes to provide similar businesses with a full suite of co-location, cloud computing, managed services, and hybrid hosting solutions, he added.

WIND said that its back office systems will be fully supported from CentriLogic’s new 16,000 square foot data center launched recently in downtown Toronto. Additionally, the managed Web hosting provider will deliver optimal power, network connectivity, and bandwidth from the secure facility for a period of five years.

WIND Mobile’s VP of IT, Atif Ahmad, reiterates: “WIND Mobile has made an impact in the wireless telecommunications space by paying attention to specific customer needs. We are in a state of rapid growth, and CentriLogic provides us with constant peace of mind knowing that our critical systems are secure and available. By hosting our IT infrastructure with CentriLogic, we are able to direct our attention towards quality, innovation, and ensuring that our 400,000 plus customers receive the highest level of customer satisfaction.”

Global leader in website security solutions for online business, SiteLock LLC is joining hands with Aruba, the largest website hosting provider in Italy. Aruba offers website hosting and registered domain names to its clients and is now expanding their offerings to include SiteLock website security features for its clients. By entering this partnership, Aruba will be able to offer security features and services to customers in excess of 2 million.

Aruba will be able to offer malware removal and detection, blacklist monitoring, application and vulnerability scanning as part of SiteLock’s security products to their web hosting clients, managed server owners and email account members. This combined client data base sums up to more than 8 million customers.

“Website security tools are a must-have in today’s online world, and we’re thrilled to partner with the Aruba Group expand our online security footprint in the European market,” says Executive VP of Business Development for SiteLock, Tom Serani. “Aruba’s history and expertise in the hosting community is the perfect match for our Internet security products, and we are happy to be the ones to help complete their comprehensive, business-focused online services.”

“At the Aruba Group, we strive to offer our customers the highest quality, extensive range of services that small businesses need to maintain a successful online presence,” says Stefano Cecconi, CEO at Aruba Group. “We believe that our partnership with SiteLock will increase the value for our customers by delivering more than hosting, but a secure website environment for online businesses. Combining the SiteLock service and the OpenSRS wholesale platform gives us the best product on the market for our customers and the best reseller feature set for our business.”

SiteLock was established in 2008 and helps small business protect their websites and reputations through website security services. It offers these services at some of the most competitive market prices available. The company has its headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida and a worldwide client base of around 500,000.

The Aruba Group is provider of a wide range of online services including domain name registration, online advertising, application housing and E-commerce to numerous customers. The company has offices and data centers spread across Europe, namely in Italy, France, Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. The company’s niche services are offered to over 8 million customers world over.

If you have a business that requires a much needed exposure, look no further. You need to take your business online. Internet has shrunk the world and that’s where everyone is. Gone are the days when people would ask around for a solution to their queries. Now they just “Google” it. To become a part of this alternate universe (internet) your business needs an identity. This identity is commonly referred to as “domain”. It represents the business as a brand on the internet and gives you the necessary professional status online. Once you have this, your business stands a chance to shoot up to a whole new level.

Domain 101

Domain is basically a name you use instead of an IP address. IP address is unique to each system. The computers use this IP address to identify each other on the internet. For us humans, remembering these addresses is a hassle. That’s why domains names were developed, to easily identify various entities on the internet. It’s like calling a website by its name rather than an identification number.

Choosing a domain name is easier said than done. Chances are 9 out of 10 times, the name you chose to represent your business online is already taken. In such cases what should you do? Consider the pointers listed below which will help you choose the right name so that you can go ahead and make your presence felt in the internet world.

How should a domain name be like?

Technically, it can be anything. It can be catchy, witty or even sarcastic at times. The catch it to find one which has never been used (it is unique after all) and to keep a name that represents the website in the most appropriate way. For example, if the website is representing your company it should sound professional. Hence, keep it simple by using the company name itself as the domain name.

It is wise to not choose a name which reads like a dream journal. It is not possible for someone to remember a name that long. Try saying your chosen domain name in one breath. If your outta breath by the end of it, change the name.

Do some research on your competition business. This is important because if the names are similar, it is highly likely that the people who are trying to find your business might end up on your rival’s page. Tweaking your rival’s domain name is not always clever.

Search around for other extensions if you can’t register your name as a “.com”. Investigate the “.com” site before you zero in on an extension. Most people instinctively go for “.com” and you don’t want them to be redirected to a spam site because of an extension. This name will be with you until you run out of business, or decide to change what your company is called. Make it worthwhile.

How do I get a domain name?

The easiest way is to go to a web hosting provider and get them to register your domain for you. Another way is to register through an accredited registrar (ICANN, for example). Since the market is competitive, you can get the domain name registered at a very low yearly fee. One important piece of information you should always remember is to renew the domain name before it expires. It is not renewed on time, then it will no longer belong to you and the registrar has the power to sell your domain name to anyone.

I know many of you will agree with me when I say it’s easier to lick your own elbows than get a helpful answer you’re looking for from a customer service executive. Its true actually, they will be able to answer every possible question in the arsenal including why they are so incompetent but won’t have a single clue about what the customer query is. Now you can settle with the good-for-nothing answers when it comes to getting the wrong dress size which you ordered online. But when it comes to choosing a web hosting provider, you cannot afford to settle with poor services. You need necessary insights about the provider and the best way to find it is by calling their customer service department. Below, I am listing some pointers which will help you determine the provider’s customer service proficiency which will help in finding an ideal web host provider.

Ask Intelligent Questions

Get inspired from “Dora, the Explorer”. Do you notice that the little kid asks the right questions and your kids are able to answer them correctly? My point is, you can find a lot about a company by asking the right questions to the customer service sector. Question about anticipating customer needs, their method of tracking the point of error through by asking its customer etc. will enable you to judge the efficiency of the web hosting provider.

Consider Accessibility Options

An ideal provider should have 24/7/365 customer service availability .This is because you don’t know when the network decides to play dirty. It will not care that some critical information needs to go up online at that particular moment. Narrow down your search by short listing companies which have 24 hour availability. You should also research for providers who have basic troubleshooting sections for the most commonly occurring problem.

Investigate the service quality

While outsourcing is not always a bad idea, high standards of quality is expected no matter what. You should not be in a situation where you have a query and have to listen to 40 minutes of a flute solo because the technical personnel who received the call was a replacement who hasn’t been trained yet. Decide upon a company which can answer your call at 2 o’clock in the morning and still provide the best service support.

Find out about cash back schemes

Since you’re paying for the services, it is only fair that you should get the money back in case the services are unsatisfactory. Information regarding this can be directly found out through the customer service portal. If the company does not have such schemes, you may strike it off your list.

Finally, never settle when you can get the best. Make sure that the chosen web hosting provider gives you a consistent service at high standards. Remember that it’s not always easy to explain technical jargon in layman terms. Look for a company which will listen to you and provide you the necessary support no matter when. It should feel like love, once you find it, you never go wrong.

The society that we are living in is perpetually high on technology and by the looks of it, the trend is not going to die out any time soon. The latest technological fad seems to be the word ’App’. That’s right; bless Steve Jobs for revolutionizing the entire concept of technology with a single word- ‘app’. Although it is just the shortened form of the word application, you can’t simply ignore the fact that it’s the first letter of the company which made the 68% of the world’s population snobbish (they no longer refer to their phone as a phone; it’s now an iPhone, didn’t you know?). Don’t be surprised if your baby’s first words are “app” or “Steve Jobs” or “apple”. It’s just how this generation is evolving (through App of course!)Even the techies are switching various software lingo to App. So now, OS is an app, script is an app and software is an app as well.

The application which got me really interested other than Angry Birds, Temple Run and other mind numbing addictive games is Pinterest. It not only sounds fancy, it is also one of the most useful apps out there. Here is why.
Let me paint you a little picture. You just bought this really nice pair of boots and want to show it to your friends all over the world. Now, you could send it to everyone from your phone but with the down–in-the-dumps phone plans, you need a better option. That’s where Pinterest comes to your rescue. All you have to do is click a photo from your phone and upload it on your Pinboard (yes, that’s what it’s called) and share it with your friends and the world. With Pinterest, you can save, sort and manage images which are cleverly called pins and you can also categorize and organize them through collections called the pinbooards.

Pinterest basically takes scrap-booking to an entire new level. The favorite pastime of your grandma is now tweaked to cater to our generation (scrap-booking is no longer an old lady hobby). There are so many ways you can use this wonderful application. You can show photos of your dog drooling, your cat playing the piano and even of that red bird beating up a pig with mustache (OK, way too much Angry Birds marathon).

The truth of the matter is, it is the hit among women, because let’s face it; they always have lots to share. Many people pin their craft ideas, outfit of the day etc on their boards and if you like it you can pin it on your own wall (sorry, pinboard). It is another great way to network with your friends from book clubs, shoe club and all the other kinds of clubs out there.

Did I mention it boosts your business network as well? (Provided you have a legal, viable business). Say you make jewellery, pottery, mixed tapes or pretty much anything that has to do with you and pots of creative juices. You post your creation on your pinboard and sooner or later, other users will start to share them and your work will get followers and you will become rich (it will not happen overnight, but looking at the big picture here).

Interested people or should I say pinterested people ( no pun intended ) can access their pages by logging on through Facebook or Twitter or you can just wait for a friend of yours to invite you. Do whatever it takes, but get yourself an account if you are one of those 79% of the people who like to share their ideas and pictures with the world in a completely non- creepy way.

Pinterest is a highly versatile tool and is here to stay. It’s a fantastic way for people to tell their stories through pictures. We all know what they say (though the identity of “they” is inconclusive) — a picture is worth a thousand words. Now where is that black exploding bird when you need it?

Search engine optimisation is not that easy to wrap your mind around. Just when you thing you have a got a hang of it and you get set to raise your website’s ranking, SEO changes its algorithm.

First there was the Alta Vista algorithm where the number of times a keyword was repeated was what boosted the ranking. The algorithm bombed when people started using the keywords more number of times than actually giving information to prospective clients. So now, Google being the most favoured search engine, changes its search algorithm before anyone starts to get too comfortable with it and tries to trick it to boost ranking.

Well, want to know what the latest trick is? Read on.

Search engines now focus on the quality of the site rather than the number of visitors to the site. With viral video craze, it is no longer a herculean effort to bring up the stats for your site. But that apparently is not what search engines are willing to buy.

I cannot sufficiently stress the importance of good content. But that is not the only secret to success. And neither is making your website unnecessarily bulky. You should give all the information and you need to give the right information. I have told you this repeatedly, and I’m saying it again: optimization is always your second priority; the first has to be the people who will read it. Your website has to be people-centric. Address their concerns and they will find their way back to you when they need you again.

One of the many factors Google looks at to decide your rating is the amount of time that a viewer spends on your website; whether or not your website is enticing and informative enough to hold the reader’s attention. For this, you have to unclutter your website. Take off all the irrelevant information that you put in there just to add weight to the website. It’s not required.

Make sure that your site does not take too long to load. The time taken to load should not be the time it takes them to rush to the supermarket, pick up their groceries, stand in the queue to get it billed and get back. Nobody wishes to wait for spectacularity to make an appearance. They have other sites to explore.

Make sure that your content is not riddled with incorrect grammar and atrocious use of big words. A heavy read is no read. Also, your website is the face of your company. If you do not proofread and check for errors, that’s ‘strike one’ for you. Remember, keep it simple, clean and interesting, silly. If it’s share-worthy, it’s love-worthy.

It’s nice if you have diverse information to share. It’s even better if you have one thorough repository that everybody would turn to when they have a question regarding the issue you are addressing.

I have noticed — and I’m sure you have too–that websites focus more on the home page and as they proceed with subsequent pages, their interest starts to wane and that is pretty apparent with their dedication to the page. When a reader lands on a page that shows your diminished interest, well, they would not like to hang around for long. So treat every page as your home page and shower it with affection.

Why do we like ballet? Because one movement gracefully leads to another and there is no jarring movement. Your website should be the online manifestation of ballet. One link should gracefully flow into the next. And they should be easy to find! Provide internal links within the content itself. That will stall the reader on your website longer. But don’t overdo it. it is advised to limit the internal links to only four.

Remember, trying to find a way to beat the algorithm is only a temporary solution; until the algorithm is changed again. Focus on the end reader, instead. You cannot go wrong.